Prospect's Wife a Suspect in Baby Kidnapping

By AP&nbsp|&nbsp

Posted: Tue 9:47 PM, Mar 24, 2009

A 2-month-old is back in the arms of her parents and the wife of a top Pittsburgh Pirates minor league prospect is suspected of taking the infant from a health clinic outside Tampa, authorities said Tuesday.

Amalia Tabata Pereira, 43, was being questioned by Florida detectives in Manatee County, where the girl was found unharmed Tuesday afternoon, a day after she was taken from the clinic. Plant City Chief of Police Bill McDaniel said authorities are looking to charge Pereira with false imprisonment.

She is the wife of Jose Tabata, 20, an outfielder and one of the top three prospects for the Pirates, who train in Bradenton, which is in the county where the infant was found. In a statement, Pirates president Frank Coonelly said they have received "no indication that Jose is believed to have had any involvement in this matter."

Sandra Cruz-Francisco was taken from her mother, Rosa Sirilo-Francisco, about 3 p.m. Monday by a woman her family only knew as 'Janet,' Plant City police said. The mother had taken her baby for a checkup at the Plant City Health Department, where she met Janet, who said she was an immigration official, Sirilo-Francisco told the Tampa Tribune. The woman told Sirilo-Francisco that there were officers at her home waiting to deport her and the child's father to Mexico.

Janet offered to help, but said she had to take the baby.

The two women drove with the infant to a farm where the child's father works and Janet told him the same story, and the mother later handed the child over.

"We believe that may have been the story, but we haven't spoken with the suspect," he said.

Investigators now believe Janet and Pereira are likely the same person. Wilson said Pereira has a criminal record that includes theft and fraud convictions and that police did not have a hometown for her because she has several aliases.

"We don't know if it's an isolated incident or not," he said.

There were conflicting reports regarding exactly how the infant was found.

Plant City police said Pereira turned herself and the baby in to the Manatee County Sheriff's Office early Tuesday afternoon. But authorities in Manatee said Pereira was detained after an anonymous tipster called police to report a woman on a street corner in downtown Bradenton had information about the missing baby.

When deputies responded to the scene, the baby was found and a woman was detained.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said they have launched an investigation. A spokesman wouldn't say whether Pereira worked for the agency, citing the investigation. Wilson, with the Plant City police, said they don't believe she does.

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